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GARETH TREHARNE & SON of NANTYGLO RECORD REAKING PERFORMANCES by Gareth Watkins In late September of this year two men of Gwent, namely Gareth Treharne and son Stuart recorded what in my experience, was possibly the most incredible performance achieved by any Welsh fancier, when they clocked sixteen pigeons in a matter of 9 minutes to take the FIRST SIXTEEN positions in the Welsh S.R.N.F.C.’s Carentan young bird National. Yes you’ve read that correctly – they clocked sixteen pigeons in 9 minutes in a channel race. In fact the partners actually had a batch of 11 birds drop together from this 180 mile channel race and all eleven were clocked within seconds of each other. This performance came close on the heels of an earlier blanket finish in the Eastbourne Young Bird National race when they clocked eight birds in a matter of 10 SECONDS to win 2nd 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th & 9th section plus 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th & 16th Open National from a field of 1,300 pigeons. Obviously such a performance demands widespread recognition and the following is a brief report into the history of the Treharne partnership along with some highlights of their racing career thus far.
Gareth & Stuart The partnership was formed in 1975 with birds obtained from top local fancier Steve Robinson of Blaina, supplemented by pigeons from Welsh legends Lee & Cooper of New Tredegar. At that time the birds were flown on the natural system and the race team was initially made up from many different strains. However, once the partners had built up a team of Lefebre Dhaenens and Verheyes obtained from Steve Robinson, Bob Lee and Graham Cooper, their performances took off. Perhaps the best of these early performances was winning the Scottish Averages in the Welsh North Road Fed with a team of, what was in those days, considered to be sprinters! I should point out that the Welsh North Road Fed was the largest in the UK at that time with more than 1,500 members sending as many as 25,000 birds to the early races.
The record breaking lofts Although Gareth and Stuart have always raced to their present location the lofts themselves have changed considerably in the intervening years. The present loft set up includes a 22ft x 9ft old bird loft and a 21ft x 8ft young bird loft with each loft having three sections and a corridor. The lofts all face west south west down the valley. The main stock section is situated under the old bird loft and this houses twelve pairs of stock birds with a team of feeders kept in a separate loft and these feeders ease the burden on the stock pigeons when rearing. The feeders themselves are actually sons and daughters of the main stock birds so the partners have ready made back up should anything happen to the main pairs. Old birds are raced on roundabout, and the young birds on darkness although a small team of natural young birds is also kept and these act as a back up in case of a bad young bird racing season. The roundabout cocks are housed in two sections which contain nestboxes whilst the roundabout hens are kept in a section of their own and rest on V perches. The darkness young birds are raced virtually throughout the programme with the later rounds of natural young birds getting perhaps two or three races if in good feather. All the young birds are left together to do as they please as they are never separated and can mate if they so wish.
Grizzle Cock. Double grandson of Silver Shadow and sire of winners for the Treharnes. Stock birds are usually mated in the middle of January, with all the racers being paired at the same time in the third week in February. Gareth and Stuart try to plan it so that each pair of racers rears a single young bird each before the racing season begins. Old bird training before the first race amounts to just three tosses at 9, 12 and 18 miles and they get very little if any road training thereafter. The racers are then kept fit by twice daily home exercise. They are shut out of the loft but are never flagged as they exercise freely once fit. It takes a couple of weeks for the birds to get used to the system and then they can be relied on to exercise well for up to an hour twice per day depending on the weather. The young birds, like the old birds, are not trained after the first race as the partners have found that by doing this they have had far fewer losses to hawk strikes. The furthest they take the birds, both old and young, is just 18 miles. Young birds get eight to ten spins out to 18 miles starting at 3 miles and then at 5, 9, 12 and 18 miles doubling up at each training stage.
Gareth The birds are fed by hand in hoppers and when rearing the old birds will have a gallipot topped up with food in their nest box as well. The food is not measured but when the birds start to go for water they are judged to have had enough until the next feed. The main feed is made up from mixing two widowhood mixtures together Versele Laga and Natural .Red Band conditioning seed is also used for trapping but the partners are careful not give too much of this high energy mixture. As the National races approach the feed is increased and, depending on the distance to be flown, this will dictate on which day the food quantity is increased. Peanuts are also fed in the build up to the longer National races.
Son of Black Label and sire of winners when at stock. The birds are routinely treated for cocci, canker and worms before the start of the breeding season and are also given a treatment for paratyphoid/salmonella during the winter months. Once racing begins the racers may get an occasional course of treatment against respiratory infections should the partners think it necessary. In the past the birds have also had access to a supplement of vitamin B12, but this season they have had very little in the way of supplementary feeds, just clean food and water with the addition of garlic and honey from time to time and they have performed phenomenally.
Chequer stock cock - a direct son of Lady Martine and sire of winners including 1st Fed Open. The main bloodlines housed at the present time are predominantly of Eijerkamp – Ponderosa origin. These are a mixture of the Van Loon lines going back to Silver Shadow and Chicago, with Janssen lines of different types crossed in i.e. Glamourboy, Wonderboy06, Jonge Polly, Lady Martine, Beatrice, Shilpa, Tornado. Chicago and Tornado are the grandfathers of the great champion Che. Also at stock are other Eijerkamp bloodlines such as Black Label, Tiesto, Bonfire, Peter/Charlene, Platina, Abel, Phillips and Lady Francis. Some Wal Zoontjens birds and a Jos Thone of Sumo lines have also been introduced to add to the one stock cock out of the old family of Lefebre-Dhaenen – Verheye - Jan Aarden, so Gareth and Stuart seem to have all bases covered in the stock loft. These should be able to produce birds to give a good account of themselves from 50 – 500 miles. The policy has been to inbreed the Silver Shadow birds and then outcross the progeny. The partners have recently started to inbreed with the Chicago lines and have found that the double grandchildren produce a lot of good birds once outcrossed. The resultant pigeons produced by this carefully thought out breeding policy, are medium sized and well balanced with excellent feather quality. The Silver Shadow Van Loons produced a lot of grizzles at first but as a result of Gareth and Stuart’s breeding plan the number of grizzles has been reduced with a corresponding increase in the number of blues and chequers bred each year.
Gareth holding his blue cock, winner of 8th National Eastbourne and 1st National Carentan YBs 2011. Gareth and Stuart presently fly in Cwmtillery Flying Club and compete weekly against the likes of Preece Brothers & Sons as well as Mark Sparey and a host of other National winning lofts, so the competition at club level is of the highest calibre. In 2011 club racing the Treharnes won 9 x 1sts and their birds also topped the centre section of the Welsh South Road Federation 8 times with many seconds thirds etc. They also topped the Fed twice with a number of seconds and thirds and other minor prizes. All these “domestic” prizes won in addition to their excellent series of National results racing with the Welsh SRNFC. The loft’s current top performer is a grandson of Chicago [see performances at the end of this report]. One young bird, a blue cock flown on darkness, in 2011 won 1st and 8th Open National, winning 8th National at Eastbourne and 1st National at Carentan; on both occasions the blue cock was accompanied by a host of loftmates but he was the one that was quickest over the sensor pads! He is bred down out of Bonfire and Vlekje Jan Aarden lines with a bit of the old family of Lefebre Dhaenen x Verheye thrown in for good measure.
Grizzle Cock. Son of Platina and sire of winners including 1st sect 4th Open National Bergerac 506 miles.
The outstanding team performances in both the Eastbourne and Carentan young bird Nationals have not come about by chance but rather as a result of sourcing top class stock and applying a carefully thought out breeding plan around these base birds. The resultant offspring have then been conditioned to perfection by two very astute fanciers to provide blanket finishes in races where, it would appear that all of the partners’ entries were of a similarly high level of fitness and form. Congratulations Gareth and Stuart on a truly outstanding series of results. As a matter of interest I have printed below the Treharnes’ performances in the 2011 season. Old Birds
Lydhurst 16/4 145km
1, 5 club 147 birds, 5th 8th section fed 822 birds, 22nd 30th open fed 2,509 birds
Birds were a Grandson Chicago, and a grandson silver shadow
Salisbury 23/4 122km
2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 Club, 326 birds, 16th, 17th section 1,494 birds, 32nd, 33rd open 4,739 birds
Bedhampton 30/4 145km
4th club 257 birds
Salisbury 8/5 122km
1, 2, 3, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16 club 273birds, 1, 2, 3, 15 section 1,144 birds, 3, 4, 5, 44 open 4,046 birds
Eastbourne 14/5 265km
1, 2, 4, 5, 6 section fed 1,058 birds, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18 open fed 3,515 birds
Carentan 21/5 306km welsh south road national
3 club 248 birds, 10, 17, 20, 24 ,section national, 21, 36, 39, 51 open welsh south road national 1,994 birds
Messac 4/6 451km welsh south road national
1, 5 club 181 birds, 1, 6, 13, 45 section 647 birds, 2, 20, 58 open 1,482 birds
Salisbury 11/6 122km
1, 2, 3, club 74 birds, 1, 2, 3 section 510 birds, 1, 2, 3 open 1,622 birds
19/6 Cholet 550km welsh south road national
3, 13, 23, 33 section 210 birds, 9, 26, 59, 96 open 546 birds
Lyndhurst 21/6 145km
3, 6 club 86 birds
Niort 2/7 600km welsh south road national
20, 21, 31, 43, 47 section 249 birds, 46, 47, 65, 88, 95 open 515 birds
Southsea 9/7 182km
3, 4 club 61 birds, 2 section 330 birds, 22 open 1,057 birds
Bergerac 15/7 816km welsh south road national
1, 2, 5 section 109 birds, 4, 6, 27 open 236 birds
Young Birds
Salisbury 23/7 122km
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 club 71 birds
Lyndhurst 20/8 145km
1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10 club 271 birds, 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10 section 1,086 birds, 6, 7, 8, 9, 19, 20, 21, 22 open 3,034 birds
Littlehampton 2/9 214km
1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 club 218 birds, 2, 4 section 625 birds, 5, 10 open 1,889 birds
Salisbury 15/9 122 km
1, 2, 3 club, 3, 4, 5 section, 303 birds, 12, 13, 14 open fed 633 birds
Eastbourne 15/9 265km Welsh South Road National
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 17, 18 section 666 birds, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 34, 35 open 1219 birds Carentan 23/9 306 km Welsh South Road National
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 sect 241 birds,1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 open 585 birds
Performances of blue cock WHU 08N16281 mentioned in text:-
Blue cock. Son of Chicago and top stock cock for the Treharnes being sire of amongst others 2nd National Messac and 2nd National Saintes.
Sire - Son of Chicago Dam - Granddaughter of Silver Shadow & Glamour Boy
1st section 120 birds, 2nd open Welsh South Road National 342 birds Saintes 696km 2010 1st section 647 birds, 2nd open Welsh South Road National 1,482 birds Messac 451km in 2011
1st club 147 birds, 5th section fed 822 birds, 22nd open fed 2,509 birds Lyndhurst 145km 2011
3rd club 248 birds, 10th section, 21st open Welsh South Road National 1,994 birds Carentan 306km 2011
Not bad eh?
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